It’s all over sports radio, ESPN, and the Internet: Florida Marlins & Manny Ramirez?
Five years ago I would have been ecstatic at the possibility of bringing in someone like Ramirez, who is a first-ballot Hall of Famer and legendary slugger. The thing is, Manny is no longer the sick RBI machine that he was in 1999 when he hit 44 home runs and drove in 165 runners. Hell, he’s not even the Manny of 2005 who hit 45 home runs and drove in 144 RBI. This Manny is now a problematic, lazy, selfish, Cancer who is on pace to hit under 30 home runs for the third straight season.
What makes this trade rumor even more ridiculous is the fact that Manny will be a free agent at the end of the season and if the Fish have yet to sign Dan Uggla to a contract, what makes you think they will pick up Manny’s $20 million dollar option for 2009? We don’t need to give up Josh Willingham or Jeremy Hermida plus two prospects to “rent” out a guy who is more trouble than he is worth.
The only way this trade would make sense was if they gave up Mike Jacobs, who is a DH at heart and doesn’t belong in the National League. That way, Jorge Cantu could be moved to first, Dallas McPherson could be called up from the Minors to play his position of Third Base, and Manny can play either corner of the outfield 85% of the time. He’s not worth putting in full-time anymore.
You want to know how worthless it would be to bring Manny to the Marlins? There is a guy on our team named Cody Ross who has hung around for five seasons and played on four different teams before getting his first shot at full-time play. He literally sat on the bench for the first two months on this Marlins team and now after getting playing time has almost identical numbers to Manny Ramirez and will cost you $20 million dollars less.
Manny has 20 HR, 68 RBI, and is hitting .301
Cody has 16 HR, 51 RBI, and is hitting .255
Manny has over 100 more at-bats than Cody Ross, a guy who would never even have an opportunity were the Marlins not so desperate. How many more home runs and RBI would Cody have with an extra 100+ at-bats? I don’t know how every other Marlins fan feels but I will keep my Cody Ross’, Jeremy Hermida’s, and Josh Willingham’s and you go ahead and make a play for that lazy, son of a bitch named Manny Ramirez.
I want nothing to do with him!